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DALLAS — It could have been worse. It should have been worse. It was worse, if you were spending the first day of the new year in Philip Fulmer’s headset.

Fulmer, Tennessee’s coach, stood for three cold hours and 42 frigid minutes on the sideline of the Cotton Bowl, and for all but about eight minutes of that, he watched 11th-ranked Kansas State kick the livin’ dog out of his Vols.

K-State was a 31/2-point favorite coming in. It was a 35-21 winner going out. Mercifully. Misleadingly.

“I think they did a tremendous job of taking a plan and executing it and, basically, taking us back outside the woodshed and spanking us,” Fulmer said.

He had it right, Heart-o’-Texas metaphor and all.

You wouldn’t find a Vol who’d admit it, but walking onto a snow-encrusted Cotton Bowl field on a cold, cloudy New Year’s morning couldn’t have been much of a boost for a team that had kicked off just once this year in conditions cooler than 50 degrees.

“I don’t think those guys even wanted to play this game,” K-State receiver Quincy Morgan said. “The look in their eyes, once we got up, I think they kind of quit.”

The Wildcats had the opposite reaction.

“We’re used to cold weather,” offensive guard Andy Eby said. “We’re used to playing in the snow. I think that was definitely an advantage for us.”

If that wasn’t enough, breaking on top early was. Five minutes in, Aaron Lockett ran back a David Leaverton punt 67 yards for a touchdown. An illegal block nullified the score, but did nothing to lessen the effect.

It showed Tennessee that the Wildcats’ return game was as deadly in real life as it was on tape. Leaverton averaged almost 40 yards a punt this season, but he averaged less than 30 on Monday. K-State’s average field position was its own 43; Tennessee’s average spot was its own 22.

Once they saw they could run back a punt against Tennessee, the Wildcats went about finding out what else they could do.

Turns out, just about anything they wanted.

Instead of scoring in one quick strike, K-State used that possession for a nine-play touchdown drive that included seven rushes for 58 yards.

By halftime, it was 21-14, thanks to Morgan’s two touchdown catches from Jonathan Beasley, but even then it wasn’t that close. Only K-State turnovers — an interception for a Vols’ touchdown and a fumble that cost the Cats at least a field goal of their own — kept Tennessee in the game.

It didn’t stay much longer.

“We felt like we had them back on their heels, running it down their throats and throwing the deep ball to Quincy,” tailback Josh Scobey said. “They really didn’t know how to react to that. We went in at halftime and said, ‘We’re going to mix them up a little more.’ “

K-State’s first two possessions consisted of 10 rushes for 103 yards and two touchdowns.

Tennessee’s defense was the third best in the country this year against the run, allowing only a fraction more than 74 yards a game.

The Wildcats finished with 297.

Writers who covered Tennessee remarked that this looked like one of the Vols’ two BCS bowl losses to Nebraska in the last three years.

That was the Wildcats’ plan: Run the option enough to get them going sideways, then shove it down their throats.

“The option makes you hesitate enough,” Fulmer said, “that you don’t do well enough at (stopping) either one of them.”

Defensively, it was the same story. K-State loaded up to stop bruising back Travis Henry, put the Vols in a hole, then dropped off enough to short-circuit their passing game.

Simply, there was nothing Tennessee did that Kansas State didn’t do better.

“It was pretty easy,” Morgan said. “I’m not getting big-headed or anything, but it was a lot easier than I expected. We were prepared for this game, and I don’t think they were.”